Use of Ritalin with Preschoolers
The National Institute of Mental Health sponsored a study, The Preschool ADHD Treatment Study that took 303 preschoolers from age 3-5 who were diagnosed with ADHD. The study included 10 weeks of behavioral treatment along with parent training and about one year of drug treatment. Nearly 300 families were enrolled, but many dropped out after the first phase, either because the behavior treatment worked or because they didn't want to put their children on drugs.
The drug phase started with 165 children, more than a dozen dropped out because of side effects. It found that the children taking methylphenidate had a more marked reduction of their ADHD symptoms compared to children taking a placebo.
Throughout the duration of the study, the children grew about half an inch less in height and weighed about 3 pounds less than expected, based on average growth rates established prior to the study.
"This is a catastrophe. It just opens up the way for drugging the younger kids," said Dr. Peter Breggin, a New York psychiatrist and longtime critic of psychiatric drug use in children.
Breggin said the research is part of a marketing push by the drug industry to expand drug use to the youngest children.
The study appears in the November edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Several of the researchers have financial ties to makers of ADHD drugs, including Ritalin.
Lead author Dr. Laurence Greenhill, a psychiatrist with Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, has been a paid speaker for most companies that make the drugs.
What do you think???
The drug phase started with 165 children, more than a dozen dropped out because of side effects. It found that the children taking methylphenidate had a more marked reduction of their ADHD symptoms compared to children taking a placebo.
Throughout the duration of the study, the children grew about half an inch less in height and weighed about 3 pounds less than expected, based on average growth rates established prior to the study.
"This is a catastrophe. It just opens up the way for drugging the younger kids," said Dr. Peter Breggin, a New York psychiatrist and longtime critic of psychiatric drug use in children.
Breggin said the research is part of a marketing push by the drug industry to expand drug use to the youngest children.
The study appears in the November edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Several of the researchers have financial ties to makers of ADHD drugs, including Ritalin.
Lead author Dr. Laurence Greenhill, a psychiatrist with Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, has been a paid speaker for most companies that make the drugs.
What do you think???
Comments
I am 51 years old. Have been on Ritalin for 9 years now. I began taking it for depression after my marriage ended, and also in a misguided attempt to lose weight! I lost about 15 pounds at the beginning, had tons of energy, felt great...but the weight loss stopped within a few months.. I currently feel focused and motivated after I take it and am able to get a lot done. As well as the generic ritalin, I take 6 - 12 Tylenol 1 tablets a day. I know how bad this is, but can't seem to stop for more than a few days. The last nine years seem to be a blur...it's like I have lost those years....I hardly remember anything about them. I find this sad and frightening. I take what my doctor prescribed: three 10mg. tablets a day. I have tried many times to completely get off this drug but I now realize that I am truly addicted to it. If I stop taking it for more than one day I become extremely depressed and have very negative, hopeless thoughts and ideas.
I have experienced some of these side effects-
very irritable when it wears off; sometimes difficult to fall asleep, memory loss, hear music in my head that won't stop.
I hope this information will be useful to others,
Nikki Hughes